Abstract

The ambit of public goods that governments are obliged to extend to their societies resides on horizontal and vertical planes. The horizontal plane houses sectors of public goods that have become generally accepted as those conditions, services and benefits that governments and parallel agencies are obliged to extend to their citizens. On the vertical plane the provision of national public goods is a generally accepted phenomenon, but regional and global public goods that add value from beyond the national level, also entered the debate. One catalyst for a greater concern with regional and global public goods one finds in the rise of the maritime province. Justice, jurisdiction and the law of the sea reinforce the security first imperative to ensure favourable conditions for maritime goods directed towards the benefit of humanity. Africa is an inextricable actor in this growing turn towards the oceans to bring public goods from the sea into play. Important maritime matters now featuring on the predominant landward African security agenda accentuate the delivery of security, jurisdiction and justice in African waters. Leadership has the responsibility to make possible the interface of the maritime and traditional landward basis of quality public goods.